Surviving

Regarding the Feb. 10 story, "Optimism doesn't improve the chances of surviving cancer," I think those researchers had better do more research. What kind of message do they give people with cancer? Just give up? My dad was proof that optimism helps you survive as long as you can. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (bone cancer) in 1985. He was told he had approximately five years to live. He fought mentally, physically and spiritually everytime it came back, and he won each time.

Howard Scharf ran about 75 yards from the third-base side of Allentown's Coca-Cola Park to the right-field grass late last month to help secure the tarp as thunderstorms whipped through the Lehigh Valley. The Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs assistant general manager put his hands to his knees for just a few seconds to catch his breath. Last winter, the 58-year-old would have been wheezing for five minutes if he merely walked that distance. Scharf learned in March 2013, after an appointment with his family doctor followed by an emergency room visit, that he had aplastic anemia, a condition where the body stops producing new blood cells.

Raymond E. Long, 88, of 1943 S. Aubrey St., Allentown, died Monday in his home. Lehigh County Coroner Robert C. Weir attributed death to natural causes. Long was the husband of the late Jennie (Schaffer) Long. He worked at Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Trexlertown, for many years until retiring in 1964. Before that, he worked at the former Lehigh-Bernstein Bedding Co., Allentown. Born in Rising Sun, Lehigh County, he was a son of the late Henry S. and Louisa (Sensinger) Long.

It's 9 a.m. on a recent Saturday and I am one of 20 day campers sitting around a fire pit in rural central New Jersey. Doused in suntan lotion and bug spray, we are all there for the same reason: to learn survival skills, particularly those meant to fend off cannibalistic corpses. Yes, you read that correctly - cannibalistic corpses, more commonly known as zombies. From TV favorite "The Walking Dead" to last year's blockbuster "World War Z," the flesh-eating foes are everywhere.

By Emily Opilo and Gideon Bradshaw, Of The Morning Call | July 2, 2014

A tax credit program that Allentown officials want to use to spread the wealth from up to $1 billion in downtown development narrowly survived state budget cuts this week, keeping hope alive for the city's neighborhoods. Lawmakers initially left the Neighborhood Partnership Program and other initiatives that offer tax credits to businesses out of the budget as they prepared to hand their $29.1 billion spending plan to Gov. Tom Corbett. But the Senate came to the programs' defense, sparing the $18 million earmarked for them and keeping them in the proposed budget that has since passed in both chambers of the General Assembly.

This article was originally published in June 1994 for the 50th anniversary of D-Day. Ernest P. Leh joined the Army on Feb. 2, 1942, did basic training at Camp Wheeler, Ga., and became part of the 18th Regiment of the 1st U.S. Infantry Division. "The first amphibious landing I was involved in was at Oran in North Africa. The second was in Sicily," recalls Leh. After Sicily, Leh was sent to England where he began training for the invasion of Normandy. "The physical training was pretty tough.

Easton fire authorities have identified a kayaker who was rescued Wednesday after capsizing near the churning water of the Chain Dam in the Lehigh River, and the state Fish and Boat Commission is investigating how a fellow kayaker died. Caleb Gallagher, 23, of Easton, was one of two men in the river Wednesday afternoon, said Easton fire Chief John Bast. Gallagher remains in fair condition at St. Luke's University Hospital in Fountain Hill, according to a hospital spokeswoman. While crews were able to save Gallagher, another man with him, 26-year-old Jeremy Deemer of Forks Township, drowned after his kayak capsized.

Zombie Survival Camp (Manchester Township, N.J.): Learn how to find shelter, shoot a rifle, perform first aid and a variety of other skills necessary to live through a living dead apocalypse. Held on select days and weekends in May, June and July, the camp covers topics that will help you conquer not only cannibalistic corpses, but also other emergency situations - from car accidents to house fires. Its motto reads, "The better prepared you are today, the easier tomorrow will be. " Now in its sixth year, the camp is run by husband and wife team Mark and Suzanne Scelza, who are personal trainers.

Northampton County Court became the latest battleground Tuesday in the legal fight by same-sex couples to win marriage rights in Pennsylvania. Barbara Baus, a retired special education teacher from Bethlehem, is suing state tax authorities after they wouldn't recognize her out-of-state marriage to her late partner of 15 years, Catherine C. Burgi-Rios. Baus and Burgi-Rios wed in 2011 in Connecticut, a state that permits same-sex marriage. Less than a year later, Burgi-Rios was diagnosed with leukemia and she died in September 2012 at 55 years old. Baus is challenging the constitutionality of the nearly $11,000 inheritance tax bill she received after her wife's death, after the state Department of Revenue rejected her claim as a surviving spouse.

By Dan Sheehan and Samantha Marcus, Of The Morning Call | April 26, 2014

It was the morning of the first day of eighth grade, and Julius Jacobs was walking the 4 miles to school along pretty byways in the Polish city of Lodz, chatting with his friends and anticipating what the year would bring. He was a clothier's son who lived modestly but comfortably with his parents, brother and sister in the textile center southwest of the capital, Warsaw. He had a lot of friends and he liked school well enough. He was 10 days shy of 14. "We were excited, like everyone else," Jacobs recalled, sitting in the auditorium of the Jewish Community Center in Allentown one recent morning.

The meeting at a North Jersey bar was convened to set things straight. Contrary to rumors bouncing around the Philadelphia-New Jersey mob world, Pete "the Crumb" Caprio did not have a hit out on Nicodemo S. Scarfo, son of the jailed, infamous mob boss. "If it was so, I said you would have been gone a long time ago," said Caprio to an associate in a secretly taped conversation of the meeting. The February 2000 recording — by mob associate and government informant Philip "Philly Fay" Casale — was played for jurors and dissected by lawyers Thursday in Scarfo's FirstPlus mortgage fraud trial, well into its fourth month.

A man was rushed to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh with a chainsaw lodged in his neck following a tree-cutting accident Monday in Ross Township, police said. The man, an employee with Adler Tree Service, was working in a tree when his chainsaw kicked back and hit him in the neck, Ross Detective Brian Kohlhepp said. Medics left the chain saw in the man's neck as they transported him to the hospital. Paramedics said the man was out of surgery and doing well. — Pittsburgh Tribune-Review